Ask an MBA Admissions Consultant

I just took the GMAT this morning and it has been a pretty depressing day. I've been studying for the past 2-3 months (I used two Princeton Review books and MGHill practice tests) and I got out of there with a 420. I thought i would have done better than this but I have failed. I worked so hard, but no I've lost all focus and want to give up.

I really want to get into grad school but I'm afraid that I won't get in. I received my under grad degree in May of 2008.I had a 2.7 GPA as an undergrad and I felt a higher GMAT would have solidified my acceptance. I have a pretty solid resume, I worked as as a retail manager while in college and have had my current position as an underwriter for 2 years (I was promoted from an intern to underwriter). I know that my managers will write me excellent recommendations and I'm pretty sure I can write a good essay.

The school I want to go to advises a 500 is minimal but I already know of 2 people who got a score under 500 (one had a GPA of 3.7 -GMAT 490 and the other had GPA of 2.4 - GMAT 460-480?).

At this point, I feel like such a failure that I should not even apply. I do not want to take the GMAT again, as I do not understand what went wrong and I simply do not have the funds. Should I bother applying or will I most definitely need a better GMAT? Please give me some advice as I am so lost now.

In a b-school application you must have a broad offering of qualifications, of which the GMAT is only a portion. While your score will not be very competitive at many schools, it should be in the 80% range for some. Your GPA unfortunately does not help convince a committee you can handle the rigorous academics of business school and with only a couple of years post-MBA experience, you are left with needing to focus on your post-MBA vision and a very compelling story to pitch to the adcom for why you deserve a seat over someone else with better paper qualifications. Did you go to a top undergrad school perhaps, or take on a rigorous undergrad curriculum? Did you lead people as a manager, even if it wasn't post-college? what is your short and long term career vision? What can you bring to the table to offer classmates on your study teams? These are all questions you want to clearly think through...you need to have a clear and focused passion for why it is you are choosing business school, or they will see right through you to someone else. Put succinctly, you can make up for deficiencies in your application in some areas by hitting a home run in other areas. I think the initial reaction to your application might be "why is this person ready now for b-school?" Perhaps another couple of years experience will help you focus and also give you more time to prepare for and retake the GMAT--I would highly recommend a prep course in your case, which should help you improve your score dramatically. If you don't have the money now to retake the GMAT, how are you going to afford b-school? Hope this helps.